


Her Own Hero.

by themanicpixieblackgirl



Series: Writing Between the Lines [4]
Category: Twisted (TV)
Genre: Drama, F/M, Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-25
Updated: 2013-09-25
Packaged: 2017-12-27 13:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/979652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themanicpixieblackgirl/pseuds/themanicpixieblackgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lacey is both the Princess and the White Knight of her story, and she deserves happily ever after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Own Hero.

**Author's Note:**

> this happens in the re-written universe in which Archie isn't a jackass. I wrote this because I hadn't written a scene in which Lacey and Danny just talked about where they were.  
> Based mildly on an anonymous message I got a while back asking me to write Danny fighting for Lacey. I drafted it on my phone, so I'm not sure if this is the start of something new or what yet.
> 
> tell me what you think.

Lacey Porter is magic. It’s one thing for Danny to know it: another for him to see it in action. This morning, she walked into school with Archie, smiling and looking up at him with eyes that could get anyone to bring her the moon. She hadn’t really needed their stunt at the diner--and, according to her little improvisation, she doesn’t need *him* either. She’s back with Archie, and she’s back to hanging out with Sarita and Phoebe like Danny was just a skipped beat.  
Still, he’s going to try to talk to her after school, when she’s standing at her locker with Phoebe and Sarita. She says hey to him when he walks up.  
“Can we talk?” He asks, and is surprised when she nods. It's strange, not feeling like he has to hide from her friends when he wants to talk to her.  
To Sarita and Phoebe, she says, “Why don’t you guys head over to my house? My mom should be home by now; she’ll let you in. I’ll give Danny a ride home.”  
Phoebe offers him a nervous smile, and while Sarita doesn’t look at him, she doesn’t glare at him, either, so there’s progress.  
“Impressive.” He says, after her friends have left. “You could teach my mother a thing or two about bouncing back to the top of a small town pyramid.”  
Her smile is a real and easy one.  
“You seem relaxed.” He’s glad to be able to say.  
She swings her purse against her leg as they walk, and her steps seem lighter. Her mouth isn’t a hard line.  
She says, “I’m fine.” And, she means it. The last few days have been fairly calm, and she has been spending a lot more time with her mother and her sister, and Archie--whose 3-day suspension is a lot lighter than it should be--has gone back to being the Archie who makes her blush when he smiles and leans in too close, who dropped cupcakes off at the house when she told him Clara won her meet on Saturday (“she’s a gymnast. she can’t eat all of these by herself; she’ll need help.” she argued when he caught her with frosting on her nose), whose kisses are sweet and devoid of Danny’s rage and desperation and *reaching*.  
Danny says, “I wanted to thank you for getting Archie to tell the truth. And for getting him to apologize.”  
“The apology was all him.” She says, and the car is silent for the first few minutes of the ride. The windows are down, and Lacey is beautiful in the light of the setting sun, and her smile is light and calm and she is at peace in the face of the cold wind that keeps lifting her hair.  
“You know, I don’t want Archie the same way I wanted you. I feel differently about him.” She says, and Danny wants to stop her from saying what he knows she’s going to.  
“How *does* he make you feel?” He asks.  
“Safe.”  
“I’m always going to be the boy who killed his aunt, aren’t I?” He asks, but she rolls her eyes.  
“Bullshit.” He knows that isn't what this is about. She says, “But, you are always going to be the boy who won’t stop toying with me. Archie doesn’t lie to me.”  
“Sure about that?”  
“You’re back in school, aren’t you?”  
“Archie is a--  
“Jealous jackass? Well, Danny, we kind of gave him reason to be.”  
Danny doesn’t say anything for a long while. She’s unraveling him, and she either doesn’t know it, or doesn’t care.  
“But, you know what he doesn’t do? He doesn’t prioritize Jo over me. With Archie, I’m safe knowing that when he’s with me, he’s not thinking about anyone else, and he definitely isn’t going to be mentioning Jo at any moment before, or after, he kisses me.”  
He wants to tell her that he could never feel the same way about Jo as he does about her, but he doesn’t get to, because she’s not done.  
She says, “I get it, okay? Everything that happened, all of the names I was called--I expected them from Jo. All anybody ever does is try to make me feel bad for Jo, but I didn’t expect to get that from you.”  
“I just wanted to be able to share my relationship with my girlfriend with my best friend, and I thought telling her would help bridge the gap between the two of you.”  
It’s times like these that she wonders if he knows it looks like he’s trying to manipulate her, if he’s doing it all on purpose to make her doubt herself.  
“You’re twisting things so I sound crazy, but you *know* that when you asked me if I felt guilty lying to Jo, you didn’t frame it in a way that made it seem like you were trying to protect me. You were guilt tripping me to protect Jo. Then the video got out, and the first thing you wanted me to do was apologize to Jo?”  
“You’ve never needed me to protect you the way Jo has, and when you finally *did* need protection, *I* was the one you needed to be protected from, and I’m sorry.”  
she says, “I wish we *had* grown up together, because maybe then, we would would have outgrown all of this attraction and confusion before any of it started to matter.”  
She pulls up in front of his house and kills the engine. Her eyes flicker to the house, and there are memories of Danny’s hands in her hair, arms around her waist, chest against hers, lips on her skin…  
“You and me, Lace? We’re electric.” He says, and he leans over to kiss her. In daylight’s farewell, Danny kisses her, steals her breath, makes her bite her lip to keep from wanting more when he pulls away. He’s right about their electricity, but...  
“Shocks wear off, Danny. I get your body; she gets your heart. That’s not fair to me.”  
“Lacey, I…” love you? Am in love with you? Want to just be with you? Am yours? Gave up Jo’s friendship for the hope that I might still have you?  
“Have to get home.” She says, looking out of his window to see that Karen has just opened the front door.  
“Right.” He says, “I have to get home.”

**Author's Note:**

> the "Lacey Porter is magic" line is going to come back later, because I've written snippets of their lives (Archie's, Lacey's, and Danny's) through college and marriage and stuff. comments and reviews are welcome :)


End file.
